Chief Rabbi of Vienna
Adolf Jellinek, who later adoted the name Aaron, was born in a village in Moravia. (now in the Czech Republic). His ancestral background is believed to stem from Czech peasants (Hussite), who, in the eighteen’s century, converted to Judaism out of religious conviction. His younger brother was Dr. Herman Jellinek, a revolutionary, who was executed after the 1848 Revolution. Jellinek studied at the yeshiva of Menahem Katzin Prossnitz, and moved to Prague in1838. There he continued his studies with major rabbis. He moved on to Leipzig, Germany, four years later where he studied philosophy and semitics. He graduated in 1845 and accepted the position of preacher at Leipzig’s Berliner Synagogue.
While in Leoipzig, Adolf Jellinek devoted special attention to scientific research in religious philosophy, bibliography, Jewish mysticism, Kabbala and Midrash. In 1848 he founded, together with a Christian clergyman, the KirchlicherVerein fuer alle Religionsbekenntnisse. This was an association open to all religious groups. The Saxon minister of religious affairs prevented him from representing his association at the Frankfurt German National Assembly (1848). In 1856 Adolf Jellinek was appointed preacher at the new Leopoldstadter Synagogue in Vienna, and nine years later, in1865, after the death of Chief Rabbi Mannheimer, he was named Chief Rabbi of Vienna and served at the Seitenstetten Synagogue.
Adolf Jellinek was soon recognized as the most gifted preacher in modern Judaism, (about 200 of his sermons were published). He related to problems of the day, making use of Agada and Midrash, which distinguished him from his predecessors. He advocated a moderately liberal line and strove to have unity in the community. He helped to avoid a split in the Jewish community by providing a conciliatory attitude with the Orthodox rabbi Solomon Benjamin Spitzer. In 1861 he ran for a seat in the Diet of Lower Austria but did not succeed. Jellinek promoted the abolition of capital punishment for political offenses, being influenced by the executions of his brother and Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. He expressed his ideas in the Neuzeit, a paper he edited from 1882. Jellinek was Baron M. Hirsch’s trustee for philanthropic activities in Galicia. He opposed the rise of Zionism, and refused to back L. Pinsker’s views. With the emerging of more antagonistic anti-Semitism, he turned to apologetics of the Jewish religion and persuaded Joseph Samuel Bloch to write his Israel und die Voelker.
Jellinek was a prolific writer and published scholarly works in numerous fields, including Kabbalah, Zohar, Talmud and Midrash. Rabbi Dr. Adolf Jellinek died in Vienna in December 1893.